How Car Makers Are Doing with Voluntary Accord to Install Automatic Braking Systems

December 20, 2019

Three years ahead of schedule, four vehicle manufacturers— Tesla, Volvo, Audi and Mercedes— have already met their voluntary commitment under an agreement to equip virtually all of their new passenger vehicles with low-speed automatic emergency braking systems that includes forward collision warning by Sept. 1, 2022.

According to the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 12 manufacturers have equipped more than 75% of their new passenger vehicles with automatic emergency braking (AEB) technology.

Two years ago, only 30% of the new vehicles of the 20 manufacturers that are part of the agreement were equipped with AEB.

“This is an outstanding achievement and confirms the accelerated deployment outcome we predicted leveraging a voluntary commitment by industry,” said NHTSA Acting Administrator James Owens. “Many crashes and injuries that might otherwise occur are shown to be preventable with this technology. It’s a win for safety and a win for consumers.”

However, among those lagging behind are Mitsubishi, Porsche, General Motors, Kia and Ford.

At the time of the agreement, NHTSA estimated that the agreement would make AEB standard on new cars three years faster than could be achieved through the formal regulatory process.

AEB systems help reduce the severity of crashes, or help prevent crashes altogether, by applying the brakes in imminent front-end collision scenarios. These systems use on-vehicle sensors such as radar, cameras and lasers to detect an imminent crash risk, warn the driver and even apply the brakes if the driver does not take sufficient action.

Percent of Vehicles that Meet the Voluntary Commitment

2017 2018 2019
JLR 0 0 0
Mitsubishi 3 6 5
FCA 6 10 10
GM 20 24 29
Porsche 0 8 38
Kia 11 13 59
Ford 1 6 65
Maserati 30 27 69
Hyundai 9 18 78
Mazda 24 61 80
BMW 28 49 84
Subaru 47 57 84
Honda 30 61 86
Nissan 14 78 86
VW 36 69 92
Toyota 56 90 92
Audi 73 87 99
Mercedes 96 96 99
Volvo 68 93 100
Tesla 100 100 100

Source: NHTSA

Topics Auto

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